Wells Fargo on the Hot Seat

“Today [September 8, 2016], the CFPB fined Wells Fargo $100 million for the illegal practice of secretly opening unauthorized accounts. Spurred by sales targets and compensation incentives, employees boosted sales by covertly opening accounts. Then, they funded them by transferring funds from consumers’ authorized accounts without their knowledge or consent. And this often racked up fees or other charges. The bank’s analysis found that employees opened more than two million accounts that may not have been authorized.”

“Wells Fargo apologized last year for charging as many as 570,000 clients for car insurance not needed. In an internal review, Wells Fargo found that about 20,000 of those customers may have defaulted on their car loans. As a result, they had their vehicles repossessed. In October, the bank revealed that some mortgage borrowers received inappropriate charges for missing a deadline to lock in promised interest rates. Even though Wells Fargo caused the delays. Wells Fargo may pay a $1 billion penalty for forcing customers into car insurance and charging mortgage borrowers unfair fees.”

“In an unprecedented enforcement action, the central bank said it will prevent Wells Fargo from growing any larger than it was at the end of 2017 until it improves its governance and risk management. Wells Fargo will also replace three current board members by April and a fourth board member by the end of the year.”

How Wells Fargo Seeks to Earn Back Trust

In 2018, Wells Fargo revealed a new strategy to earn back consumer trust.

The “renew” strategy is based on four pillars. Building a better bank. Putting service first. Updating our banking features. Increasing community impact. And it set up a Web site to communicate this strategy.Click the image to visit the renew site.

On May 6, 2018, Wells Fargo introduced a new ad campaign aimed at regaining consumer trust. It is unusual for firms to acknowledge their flaws in ads. Take a look at the initial ad. Will it work? After two days, the ad had only 7,000 YouTube views.